


How's The Weather Up There

by Margo_Kim



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, First Kiss, Height Differences, dwarf/qunari relations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 01:42:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13020609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Margo_Kim/pseuds/Margo_Kim
Summary: Lace had Opinions about height difference. Adaar politely disagrees. Krem is generally useless.





	How's The Weather Up There

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted over on my tumblr, and upon rediscovering it I remember that Lace is the best character in DAI and she deserves the most love because she is the best.

Krem was a good man, a good friend, and a right bastard, so when Inquisitor Adaar found him and Lace winding up the quiet afternoon at the Herald’s Rest and asked what they were up to, he grinned and said, “Our lead scout was just telling us how immoral it is to date outside your race.”

Lace punched him on the arm but lightly because they were friends and also because his armor, she’d learned, was very very hard. “That’s not what I said, jerk. I said people shouldn’t date outside their height brackets. Totally different. You can date whoever you want, as long as they aren’t more than six inches taller or shorter than you.”

The Inquisitor, who from the default limited and oppressive human perspective was a very, very tall woman, raised an eyebrow. But Lace was, from the default limited and oppressive human perspective, a very, very short woman, so she figured they both possessed the right of people at the extreme ends of the spectrum to make their gripes. “Bold statement,” the Inquisitor said, from all the way up there.

“Think about it,” said Lace. “It’s like, Commander Cullen is a very tall human, right? And Maryden is a very short human. There’s too much distance between the mouths there, it’ll never work.”

“Yeah, height is the only reason the Commander and our resident minstrel wouldn’t make a good match,” Krem drawled.

Lace ignored him, which unfortunately only spurred members of the Chargers on because they were needy little children with the most indulgent dad ever. “But! Maryden is a short human, and Sera is an average sized elf. It all works out. No one needs to stand on any boxes to reach anyone else’s mouth.”

“Mouths aren’t the only thing worth reaching,” Krem said.

“Gross.”

“Can’t be so bad living your life at tit level, Harding.”

“Please,” said Lace. “The only things I’m eye level with these days are wolves and armor. Have you noticed that the eye on the Seeker’s follows you wherever you go?”

The Inquisitor crossed her arms and leaned against a post, casually looming in the way that Lace now found comforting. It was a bit like if a tree followed you around and made sure you always had a nice bit of shade. “So it’s only dwarves and the shortest of elves for you, Scout Harding? That seems so limited.”

“Not if you’re under five feet,” Lace replied. “Trust me, there’s too much acrobatics involved. You can’t steal a kiss from someone three feet above you.”

The Inquisitor’s mouth quirked. “But you could ask nicely.”

“And ruin the element of surprise? I’m a rogue, that’s all I’ve got.”

The Inquisitor thought. “Stand on the next stair up from them?”

Lace had already done the calculations. “I’d need two steps at least and then you’re kissing across a chasm.”

“Attach a rope to the ceiling and repel down?”

“Inquisitor, you know how I feel about heights.”

“How do you feel about heights?” Krem asked wickedly.

“Shut up and go get the next round, that’s how I feel about heights.”

The Inquisitor laughed, a lovely sound you could only make when you had a chest big enough for the proper resonance. “Right, right. I forgot we have a head scout afraid of a little climbing.”

Lace glared right in Krem’s grinning face before she brought her eyes back to the equally but less dickishly amused Inquisitor. “I’m not afraid of climbing. Just a little nervous.”

“But the nerves are the fun part,” the Inquisitor said.

“Maybe if you’re used to being all the way up there,” Lace replied. “Those of us lower to the ground have to worry more about how we’re gonna clamber up. I’m never sure where to put my hands.”

“I imagine,” said the Inquisitor, “wherever you would like to put them.”

“What, without asking?”

“You’re the one who wanted the element of surprise.”

Lace opened her mouth to say something–another bit of banter, another light flirtation with one of the most powerful people in Thedas–when the Inquisitor darted down. The Inquisitor was quick, sure, but she still had what felt like twenty feet to span between her standing and Lace sitting, and Lace, who had survived her promotion to head scout largely through her exceptionally good reflexes, could dodge. She could. Dodging was probably, professionally speaking, the good idea.

Lace stayed right where she was. The Inquisitor’s mouth pressed against the corner of Lace’s, and Lace’s first thought was how she should have turned her head just a  _little_  to the left.

The Inquisitor drew back, but not up, still bent practically in half so that she and Lace were eye to eye. The Inquisitor smiled. “Height difference doesn’t seem so impossible a barrier.”

Lace swallowed and replied, “Yeah. Says the woman who got to do the kiss stealing.”

“I’m still down here,” the Inquisitor teased. “If you want to kiss me, I’ll pretend to be very surprised.”

“Right,” announced Krem, standing up. “I’ll go get those drinks then.”

When the Inquisitor started to turn to say something to him, Lace grabbed her by the horns. Leverage was good, she thought, taking a moment to appreciate the Inquisitor’s eyes going wide in surprise. Then she took a much better, longer moment, to appreciate the surprising softness of the Inquisitor’s lips.

Maybe Lace had been selling herself short (ha, she was amazed Krem hadn’t said that), rejecting those bastards with the audacity to have their head three feet above hers. Hadn’t Lace been taking on unreasonably tall bastards and winning all her life?

It was something to think about, at least. Maybe sometime when the Inquisitor wasn’t laughing so warmly against Lace’s lips before she began to kiss back.


End file.
